The Final Deconstruction?
Last week i was teaching at a conference and i got to hang out with some guys like Dan Kimball, Doug Pagitt, Zaks (newsome and Lind), Mark Baas (mars hill g.r.), and some guys from scum of the earth church and i picked up on what may be postmodernisms final deconstruction of the traditional modern church. Basically, people are more and more content to simply meet as house churches. Note, not as a small group, but as a house church complete with administering sacraments, etc. In many ways this MAY be the final deconstruction of the traditional church because its a reaction to Corporate church. These are good people and they simply seem to hunger for church without the bureaucratic or political trappings. But I dont think the modern church can be deconstructed much more. You cant get any smaller than a house church. I havent read it yet but a friend of mine who read "Revolution" said that Barna's book pretty much said the same thing about boomers, i.e., people are leaving good churches to have their spiritual needs met elsewhere. Note again, they are leaving Good churches!
I'm excited by this option but i also have
3 1/2 Questions?
What does this mean for traditional modern churches? How should they respond?
How can the North American church max out on this trend?
I wonder what our friends in the underground churches (e.g. China, Arab world) etc would think about this?
Hope to hear from you.
One Love
posted by Bobby at 9:07 AM
8 Comments:
Thanks for the post Bobby. Its great to hear about followers taking initiative and not just settling for what is comfortable or easy. You will always be in my thoughts and prayers!
5:33 PM
It was great having you in class tonight. Many of the students in this class have been resistant to all things emergent. I think you really opened up their eyes... helped them to see that the emergent church isn't just a bunch of liberals who paint, write poetry, and teach hearsay...
I joke… you emergents are alright…
8:19 PM
I don't know if I have any answers, but I have thought about the movement into homes for awhile.
A couple years ago we moved to home ministries for our high school ministry. We still met as a large group, but HANDS DOWN the biggest amount of ministry, impact, passion, heart, outreach, Spirit, etc. was found in these home groups. Each took on a unique feel and most were thriving...we got people in the homes that would NEVER go to church...Alpha does this same thing...I really do think it is the next wave.
It can't get smaller though...I think what we will begin to see (in an attempt to get smaller) is the "I don't need church" mentality. Meaning, "I don't need to meet regularly and fit into some form. The church is the people, so I will just hang out with my believer friends and do outreach by hanging out with unbelievers." While I totally agree that the church is the people, Paul was still writing to people who were gathering regularly, partaking in the sacraments on a regular basis, listening to the reading of the Word (or Paul's letters), meeting with people of all different ages, etc.
I think this can totally take place in a large church (although, it is much more difficult) or in homes. The bottom line is that we don't "neglect to meet together" (Heb. 10:25).
Love you, Double-B. Look forward to the Giants-D'Backs game in a couple weeks!!
9:49 AM
my sister is a leader at Xenos in Columbus, OH. this church was one of the pioneers of the post-modern home church.
they handle their home church system with great care and special attention to accountability, checks and balances. there is still a "home base" so to speak. they have "central teaching" once a week for all to gather and see the whole community. but the central gathering is de-emphasized and kind of a formality.
home church is where real discipling happens. where they worship. where they learn/grow, etc. but my sister and her husband had to go through a rigorous training and formal learning process in order to qualify to lead their home church.
i'd be happy to answer more questions about it if you're interested. their website is www.xenos.org.
6:52 AM
BB,
There's a few things:
First, about 10 years ago, this was mentioned in a certain large church environment as the wave of the future, especially as this one sees persecution on the rise for the American church, forcing the bride to go into smaller groups. Needless to say, I was laughed out of that meeting...
Second, I need to ask, is God preparing the N. American church as he did in china prior to the revolution? I don't know the answer to this one. What I do know is the one who attends a house church is not remotely interested in the pomp and circumstance of a large church; the house church is attractive "in the raw," if you will.
Third, how is this parallel or different than a first century church? I think it is different in a few ways: a.) there is no real emphasis on leadership development (elders) in house churches today (that I am familiar with). There may be, however, house churches that are producing elders, but I am not aware of many. In the one house church movement I have mentioned to you, the current leaders don't seem to be too concerned with that, and when I raised the question, it was not clearly addressed (1 Timothy 3; Titus 1; 1 Peter 5). b.) it’s the same idea of the Army - "an army of one." While the first century church clearly had problems with this (unity), I believe the modern house church has greater problems with it, because the idea ("uniting" house churches) carries the odor of "organized church" and that is a major red flag to those who espouse such an ideal (1 Cor 10-14; Ephesians 4:1ff; Phil 2:1ff). To add to this thought, the predominant idea of being a church unto one's home church mirrors the account of Judges 17:7ff, where Micah hires a priest for his own household, when the priest had a place and a calling within the Tabernacle at this time.
Four - how do I think the churches in closed countries would respond? Probably positive at first, and would most likely encourage the house churches to remain close to the NT for direction, vision, and practice, instead of "professionals."
Finally, I believe this movement is encouraging. It shows that people truly do want authenticity and experience. They are very tired, if not exasperated with the status quo as we know larger churches can be (not all are identified here). While there are some larger churches with authentic ministries, some house churches may be nothing more than social clubs. I guess what I am saying is for both entities to embrace and celebrate the Spirit's work in both arenas.
God is moving in both environments and as long as God's Spirit is doing so, then my encouragement is to get involved, whether you lean more towards a larger group or a more intimate group. I think if Jesus could tell us anything, I think Revelation 2 - the addresses to the seven churches would be a good place to begin.
These are merely ramblings from a fellow pilgrim, watching God work and move, and praying he will allow me to continue to be part of his unfolding plan.
We're all in the same Hand...
10:05 PM
let's deconstruct it further. a home church movement that only exists online.... :)
7:58 AM
B - I love it that western church is moving in this direction... it seems so organic.
I've been in many different circles of the Body of Christ over the last 25 years, and several of those (in the early 90's) were with a group of people really sold on the "cell church" concept (from Dr. Yonggi Cho's model). We were so on-fire when we came home from our training/conference, but it never really caught on when we tried to live out the concepts.
I haven't read Revolution yet (its one of the next on my list), but I still strongly believe in idea of smallgroups/cells/house churches. Although, from what i've seen, I think they work best when the house churches are also part of network that all meet together to celebrate together, and hear a unified vision/teaching. When I listen to Rob Bell it sounds like Mars Hill has a dynamic small group network in place, where people not only share life together, but are able serve together to effectively meet the needs of their local community.
7:04 PM
Thoughts... I wonder how the house church movement addresses issues like complex Christian counseling, support for persons in unique crisis (e.g. parents of scitzophrenic children), or even simple stuff like youth ministry. Is it all family based? What about kids who don't have functioning families? How does / would the co-op work among these small groups? How connected are they to one another? Is there any system to unify them for these or better examples of ministry that requires mega-resources?
4:56 PM
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